my point of view is simple
IF the penalty are ok to apply to pirates then they should be equally ok to apply to copyright holders who abuse the law
if pirates are not allowed to simply claim "oops that was i mistake my bad" then copyright holders should not have the right to that exemption either.
The principle of balance makes sure that the law is not drafted with ambiguity that can be abused.
Look at it this way if the process is so flawed that you could "accidentally" blacklist a totally innocent site imagine the damage that could be done if you "deliberately" tried to abuse the system.
Look at the universal vs mega upload problem with this bogus DMCA takedown of the mega upload song.
if the DMCA process required you to
1. verify that infringing content contained your content
2. specify the content that belongs to you that was illegally used withing the infringing content
in addition to the current steps
the only way that Universal would have been able to do what they did, was to deliberately lie.
And if breaking the process had a liability of losing your copyright i don't think universal would have done what they did.
They did what they did because they knew the current penalties are a joke (come over to the united states, spend millions in legal fees to only get back your provable hard losses only)
The only reason the court case is going forward is because mega upload is using it to prove that SOPA is fucked up. If they prove that the current penalty doesn't prevent abuse like universal did, then keeping the penalty the same especially when you raise the penalty so greatly is not only unfair but trade war anti competitive.
If SOPA doesn't put an abuse it and lose it type penalty , you can bet other countries will put a counter suit right on their books. Use SOPA against an innocent company from that country, and that wronged person will be able to void the copyright for his country, and every citizen of that country will be LEGALLY allowed to use the internet to sell your content to the world.








Comment